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WATCH: David Beckham gets chased by dog in new Sky Sports advert

David Beckham has appeared in a new advertisement to promote the upcoming new football season on Sky Sports.

In the advert, Beckham goes on a morning jog and speeds through ten months of footballing drama and surprises, stopping to catch a game at a pub, have a kick-around with some kids, and watch a game through a family’s window before being chased away by their pooch.

Amongst the changing weather and scenery, one thing doesn’t change: the Premier League’s penchant for surprises. As Beckham runs, a commentator delightedly announces a series of imagined scenarios for next season – including a sixteen year old with two hat tricks in a week, Leicester’s Jamie Vardy breaking yet more records and Man United teenage sensation Rashford scoring the fifth goal in an action-packed game.

The advert is directed by Frederic Planchon and celebrates the unpredictability of the Premier League, after Leicester City’s shock win last season. It took more than 70 hours to film, the talents of 500 extras and 80 crew members plus the efforts of rollerblading camera specialist Myron Mance. The ad was filmed in East and West London, Derbyshire, Manchester/Stockport and at the Emirates Stadium.

Beckham said: “Anything can happen in the Premier League and this ad by Sky is a really fun way of showing that. Filming the ad was great and the finished piece is a really clever way of showing that you never know what might happen in football. I always enjoy working with Sky Sports and I’m proud to be associated with their football coverage.”

Sky Sports will broadcast 126 live games in the 2016/17 footballing season, including Friday evening games for the first time.

Sky’s first game of the 2016/17 season – Hull City vs Leicester City – will kick-off on Saturday, August 13 at 12.30pm (coverage from 11.30am).

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BBC beat ITV in the Euro 2016 final ratings

The BBC has come out on top after going head-to-head with ITV broadcasting the Euro 2016 final between France and Portugal.

A shock win by Portugal in extra-time was watched by 10.2 million on the BBC, while only 1.9 million tuned in to watch the coverage on competitors ITV. The BBC’s coverage peaked with 13.6 million viewers.

This trend fits with independent research by TVGuide.co.uk suggesting that the BBC has won the battle of the ratings throughout Euro 2016, though this only examined games during the group stages of the Euro 2016 Championship.

The final was the only time the two channels aired the same game during the tournament, though they have previously competed during finals of other championships. During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the final between Germany and Argentina attracted 12.9 million viewers for BBC and 2.9 million on ITV.

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Did BBC or ITV provide the best Euro 2016 coverage? The stats revealed

This Sunday marks the grand finale of Euro 2016 as Portugal take on hosts France for the right to call themselves Champions of Europe. It’s been a whole month of footballing highs (all British teams involved reached the last 16), unbelievable lows (only Wales got further) and Cristiano Ronaldo tantrums. We’re going to miss it all – even the heartbreak.

As per usual, the shared coverage between BBC and ITV got a lot of attention prior to the tournament. BBC had a lot in its favour – the Beeb’s lineup looked far superior. Gary Lineker sat in the host’s chair, with support in the form of Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry and Rio Ferdinand. ITV on the other hand, had Mark Pigatch, with help from Lee Dixon, Ian Wright and Glenn Hoddle. As fans would learn, the less said by Hoddle, the better. That’s without even mentioning the eternal ads vs no ads argument.

But ITV had the bigger games. Scoring three out of four of England’s matches during the tournament, BBC’s only offering for England fans was the 2pm win over Wales. The most-watched games of Euro 2016 in the UK were ITV’s England games. Advantage ITV.

We decided there was only one real way to determine which channel really won the Battle of the Euro 2016 Coverage, however, and that was to look at ratings. So, with the help of overnight ratings supplied by overnights.tv, we examined how many of you tuned into the Beeb versus ITV.

To make the game fairer, we first examined only Euro 2016 Group Stage games airing at 8pm on either BBC One or ITV 1 (games on BBC Four, ITV 4 or BBC Red Button were excluded). We also excluded the two England games, which we do not believe are accurate indicators of the public’s preference for either channel, given the huge public interest in England.

In total, the average number of people who watched a game was 5.85 million. This sample included five BBC games (Germany v Ukraine, Belgium v Italy, Portugal v Iceland, Portugal v Austria and France v Switzerland) and six ITV games (France v Romania, France v Albania, Germany v Poland, Spain vs Turkey, Spain v Croatia and Italy v Republic of Ireland). When we separate the games by channel, we learn that more fans on average watched the BBC coverage (6.22 million) than ITV coverage (5.55 million). However, if the England coverage is included, ITV coverage surges to an average of 6.66 million.

The pattern follows the same pattern for Euro 2016 Group Stage 5pm games. The BBC had seven 5pm games (Wales v Slovakia, Poland v Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland v Sweden, Czech Republic v Croatia, Iceland v Hungary, Northern Ireland v Germany and Hungary vs Portugal), which averaged 4.39 million viewers. ITV only broadcast three 5pm games (Austria v Hungary, Romania v Switzerland and Northern Ireland v Ukraine) and these went out to an average of 3.98 million.

We don’t have enough data to make the same observation about the 2pm games or the last 16 stages and later (yet), but these statistics so far would suggest that the BBC has supplied the superior coverage this Euro 2016 season.

ITV and the BBC will compete directly for your attentions this Sunday as France v Portugal airs on both channels from 7pm (kick off 8pm).

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Celebs react to England’s Euro 2016 defeat by Iceland

Twitter was inevitably abuzz during last night’s England v. Iceland football game, which (spoiler alert) saw the UK booted out of Euro 2016 by a 2-1 victory to Iceland.

With last week’s Brexit referendum result providing ample fodder for timely gags, the celebrity Twitterati jumped on the opportunity to broadcast their opinions. Here’s what everyone from Olly Murs to Kerry Katona had to say about England’s appalling display on the pitch:

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The funniest moments of Euro 2016 so far – how many of these jokes made you crack up?

Euro 2016 is well and truly afoot, with the group stage over and the last sixteen teams competing this weekend for a place in the competition’s quarterfinals. Depending on where you’re from, the experience of watching the four teams of the British Isles has ranged from frustrating to exhilarating, but how many of these hilarious moments did you catch in the news?

1. Cristiano Ronaldo’s terrified
Ah, poor Cristiano has had a tough time at Euro 2016. Unfortunately, years of arrogance on his part have made us completely unsympathetic. His reaction to his own failure to score from a penalty was hilarious on its own:

but then the internet went and made it even better.

2. The Republic of Ireland fans are the best fans in Europe
We’ve learnt in 2016 that it’s a real shame the Republic of Ireland don’t get through to the group stages of major tournaments very often, because their fans are the best fans ever. From car repairs in France, to singing babies asleep on the train, to tidying up after themselves – the Irish fans have been one of the best parts of Euro 2016.

Here they are singing ‘Dancing Queen’ with Swedish supporters:

Here they are singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ to a baby:

Here they are celebrating with a Hungarian reporter:

Here they are cleaning up after themselves:

3. Iceland commentator’s ecstatic commentary
If only British commentators responded with this much excitement over a goal and win, the world would genuinely be a better place.

4. The English Twitter response to Jamie Vardy’s goal against Wales.
The desperation for an equaliser in England’s game against Wales was so great that when Leicester striker Jamie Vardy found one Twitter instantly declared him deserving of a knighthood, as well as multiple other plaudits.

5. Cristiano Ronaldo loses it with reporter
In the hours before Portugal’s match against Hungary and in the wake of a scoring drought, Ronaldo responded to an innocent question from a reporter with a moment of fury. Again, schadenfreude is wonderful.

According to the reporter, Diogo Torres of CMTV: “We are a TV channel of a major newspaper in Portugal. We produce a lot of news about him. Some of it he doesn’t like. Perhaps that’s why he did it.”

You can check out live results, team information and upcoming fixtures on TVGuide.co.uk’s Summer of Sports.

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Cristiano Ronaldo has vented his mounting frustrations at Euro 2016 by throwing a reporter’s microphone into a nearby lake in Lyon.

The decorated Real Madrid and Portugal forward was walking through Lyon with his teammates on Wednesday morning when he was approached by journalist Diogo Torres from CMTV. In a momentary lapse of composure, Ronaldo grabs the offered microphone and throws it into a lake beside him.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Torres said: “I asked Ronaldo if he was prepared for the match. He didn’t answer. He grabbed my mic and threw it into the lake.

“We are a TV channel of a major newspaper in Portugal. We produce a lot of news about him. Some of it he doesn’t like. Perhaps that’s why he did it.”

Watch the headline-grabbing moment here:

Ronaldo has come under fire for his performances at Euro 2016, where Portugal have failed to win a single game so far. In Saturday’s Group F clash between Portugal and Austria, Ronaldo’s penalty struck the woodwork before another shot on target was ruled offside.

Ronaldo and Portugal will be hoping for a reversal of fortunes against Hungary tonight in the last game of Group F. The runner-up of Group F will face England in the Last 16 on Monday at 8pm.

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Soccer Aid 2016: meet the celebrity teams

The world’s biggest charity celebrity football match comes to our screens this evening. Soccer Aid 2016 is a huge event which takes place every two years to raise money for Unicef. Ambassadors of the charity, Robbie Williams and Jonathan Wilkes, originally organised the football match in 2006; since then, the event has raised over £17 million.

Two teams of celebrities and football legends take part in the match in teams representing “England” and the “Rest of the World”. The England team is being managed by incoming Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho alongside Robbie Williams and Sam Allardyce as assistant managers and, Bradley Walsh as coach.

One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson will be playing for the England team along with fellow singers Olly Murs, Danny Jones and Marvin Humes. Stars of the big and small screen Damian Lewis, Paddy McGuiness, Mark Wright, Jonathan Wilkes (Captain) and Jamie Theakston also join the team. Finally, comedians Jack Whitehall and John Bishop complete the celebrity side of the England team.

The ROW team is headed by Leicester City’s Claudio Ranieri who will be assisted by Niall Horan of global boyband fame.

Unicef UK Ambassador Michael Sheen will be captaining the ROW team with help from presenter Patrick Kielty in the goal, Westlife singer Nicky Byrne and, Kasabian’s guitarist Sergio Pizzorno. From the acting world Glee‘s Matthew Morrison, Game of Thrones‘ Iwan Rheon and Coronation Street‘s Shayne Ward will join the team as well as presenters Rickie Haywood-Williams and Sean Fletcher. Bringing some sporting expertise to the international side will be jockey Sir AP McCoy and rugby players Gareth Jones and Thom Evans.

The international legends for the ROW side are Ronaldinho, Cafu, Jaap Stam, Dimitar Berbatov, Edgar Davids, Samuel Eto’o, Fabio Cannavaro and Dida.

Clive Tyldesley and Chris Kamara will be commentating on the night whilst Howard Webb will be officiating as referee at Old Trafford.

If you want to see the match live, tickets are still available to buy here. If you can’t make it up to Manchester, Soccer Aid 2016 will be shown on ITV1 at 6pm this evening (05.06.2016).

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12 ridiculous bets that were more likely than Leicester City winning the league

Leicester City face Everton today at the King Power Stadium knowing that they have beaten unbelievable odds to have won the English Premier League in 2015/6. Last summer, bookies offered odds as high as 5000-1 for Leicester City, who barely survived relegation in the 2014/5 season, to win the league.

To give you an idea on how completely unprecedented this season has been, we have twelve examples of bets with odds lesser than Leicester winning the league at the start of the season. That’s right, all of these ludicrous bets were deemed more likely than the humble Leicester City winning the Premier League.

1. 500-1: Andy Murray to name his first son after rival Novak Djokovic.

Bookies believed Andy Murray was eight times more likely to name his first born son “Novak” after his tennis rival, who has beaten Murray 22 times in the 31 times the two have met.

2. 500-1: Simon Cowell to be the next Prime Minister.

Simon Cowell may be the King of Saturday Night Telly, but we doubt he’ll be getting important political power anytime soon. That said, Prime Minister’s Question Time would be more entertaining with BGT panel replacing the Speaker.

3. 1000-1: The Queen to release Christmas number one in 2015.

It’s possible, we suppose, that the Queen might release a real corker of a Christmas anthem. Weirder things have happened – like Leicester winning the league, apparently.

4. 1000-1: Robert Mugabe to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The infamous Zimbabwean President, who once said the only white man one could trust was a “dead white man” and proudly likened himself to Hitler, was deemed five times more likely to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

5. 1250-1: Arsenal to win quadruple in 2016.

Here’s one for the hopeful. Arsenal FC actually had better odds to win the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and League Cup in the 2015/2016 than Leicester did to win just the league.

6. 2000-1: Kim Kardashian to become President.

The American celebrity who we think is mostly famous for being famous was more likely to become President of the USA than Leicester’s triumph. She could hardly do a worse job than Trump.

7. 2000-1: Elvis to be found alive and well.

Some people still believe, and those believers could be rewarded a neat two grand if Elvis is indeed found alive and well.

David Cameron, the self-professed West Ham Aston Villa fan, was twice as likely to take over as manager of the ailing club than Leicester winning the EPL.

9. 2500-1: Vinnie Jones to win Best Actor Oscar.

Former Chelsea midfielder and current actor Vinnie Jones was more likely to win an Academy Award.

10. 2500-1: Piers Morgan to take over as Arsenal boss.

Could Piers Morgan hold the title of most-hated-manager in footballing history? We think this would definitely come to pass if he indeed takes over from Wenger as Arsenal boss (which, you know, was twice as likely as Leicester winning the league so could well happen).

11. 4000-1: The Pope to play for Rangers.

Why not? The Pope could get out his studded boots and become reborn as a Rangers player, though we suspect he may take issue with the footballer lifestyle.

12. 5000-1: Nick Grimshaw to win Olympic Gold in Rio 2016.

Grimmy doesn’t have long to get ready to win his Olympic Gold in Rio, but he apparently had an equal shot at it as Leicester did with winning the league.

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In a UK television first, Real Madrid star and three-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is set to appear on The Jonathan Ross Show this Saturday in order to promote the new feature-length documentary adaptation of his extraordinary life.

Not known for his humility, Cristiano is an ever-entertaining figure both on and off the pitch. Here are 7 (get it?) typically Cristiano corkers from the recording of Saturday night’s episode.

1. On Sir Alex Ferguson’s Scottish accent…

“I still don’t understand him! In the beginning, I had a translator, a Brazillian man, of course, basically only for him.”

2. On his humble nature…

“I’m humble in the way that I always like to learn… Probably maybe for you or for many people, I’m the best player but I still want to learn.”

3. On how the movie of his life came about…

Cristiano: I just was in shock, a movie about me?Jonathan: Why me? Why not Lionel Messi?Cristiano: No I understand them, they are looking for the best player in the world so…

4. On if he is concerned that his son, Cristiano Jr, will not have the same close maternal bond he shares with his mother…

“For me it is not a problem. I will say in the world, many kids don’t have mum, don’t have dads or dads die or mums die… Cristiano has a dad, an unbelievable dad.”

5. On whether it’s hard to meet potential girlfriends…

“To speak serious, it’s not easy. I know 50% they approach just for interest, it’s normal, not just me but all the people who are famous they have these kinds of problems. But in another way, I think I’m a confident guy, I’m tall, I have [my] own teeth, I have a nice body so I think the other 50% it’s because… [they like me].”

6. Forever giving hope to the United supporters that still believe…

“I’m very comfortable in Real Madrid now, I feel happy… But as people know I like Manchester United, I love that club, but [the] future, nobody knows.”

7. On ending his career at a team in the USA or Dubai…

“In my mind I want to finish in the top level, I want to finish with dignity so in a good club.”
Don’t miss the full interview with Cristiano Ronaldo on The Jonathan Ross Show, Saturday at 9.45pm on ITV.